Procedure

Go to the
Virtual Asset > Block Virtual Pools page.

Click
Add or select an existing virtual pool name to edit.

Enter a name and a description for the virtual pool.

The virtual pool will used for provisioning operations, so its name should convey some information about the type of storage that it provides (its performance and protection levels) or how it should be used. For example, "gold", "tier1", or "backup" etc.

Select the virtual arrays for which the virtual pool will be created.

Check or uncheck Enable Quota. If enabled enter the maximum amount of storage, in GB, that can be allocated to this virtual pool.

While defining the virtual pool criteria, it is recommended to change the criteria one at a time and expand Storage Pools to check which storage pools matching the criteria are available.

The pool matching algorithm runs shortly after a criteria has been selected and the matching pools will be from all systems that can provide pools that support the selected protocol.

Expand
Hardware to define the following criteria:

Option

Description

Provisioning Type

Thick or Thin

Protocols

The block protocols supported by the physical storage pools that will comprise the virtual pool. Possible protocols are FC and iSCSI. Only the protocols supported by the virtual array networks are listed.

Drive Type

The drive type that any storage pools in the virtual pool must support.

NONE will allow storage pools to be contributed by any storage pool that support the other selected criteria .

System Type

The system type that you want the storage pools to be provided by.

NONE will allow storage pools to be contributed by any array that supports the other selected criteria. Only the systems supported by the networks configured in the virtual array are selectable.

Thin Volume Preallocation

When Thin provisioning is selected.

Multi-Volume Consistency

When enabled, resources provisioned from the pool will support the use of consistency groups. If disabled, a resource cannot be assigned to a consistency group when running ViPR block provisioning services.

Expandable

When enabled:

Volumes can be expanded non-disruptively.

In some cases this may cause a decrease in performance.

Native continuous copies will not be supported.

When disabled, the underlying storage selected for volume creation will consider performance over expandability.

If the storage system type is VMAX, then the following options are also presented:

Option

Description

RAID Level

Select which RAID levels the volumes in the virtual pool will consist of.

Unique Auto-tiering Policy Names

When enabled, the unique auto-tiering names appear in the Auto-tiering policy selection list.

When disabled, the general auto-tiering names appear in the Auto-tiering Policy selection list.

Auto-tiering Policy

The Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) policy when VMAX System Type is selected.

If a FAST policy is selected, ViPR will only use the FAST policy to display matching storage pools, regardless of the Drive Type and RAID Level selected when choosing matching storage pools.

Example: Virtual pool is created with these parameters: Auto-tiering Policy: GOLD, Drive Type: Serial ATA, RAID Level: RAID1. Matching pools displayed show all storage pools that satisfy the GOLD FAST policy (could be storage pools that have FC and SSD drive types, not just Serial ATA). During provisioning, ViPR picks the Serial ATA (RAID1) pool as the Initial Placement Tier.

FAST Expansion

Enable for expansion to perform more quickly, however may cause performance issues.

Expand
SAN Multi Path to define the following criteria:

Parameter

Description

Minimum Paths

Minimum number of paths from the host to the storage array.

Maximum Paths

The maximum number of paths that can be configured per host.

Paths per Initiator

The number of paths (ports) to allocate to each initiator that is used. ViPR will not allocate more paths than the Maximum Path allows. When the Maximum Path is set too low there may be unused initiators which will not be zoned to ports.

If the number of initiators is less than max_paths and paths_per_initiator = 1, then some paths will be unused and each initiator will get one port.

If the number of initiators is less than max_paths and paths_per_initiator > 1, then some initiators will be assigned multiple ports until max_paths is reached. The ports will be balanced across networks if possible.

If the number of initiators is equal to max_paths, each initiator will be masked and zoned to exactly one path if paths_per_initiator=1. If paths_per_initiator is > 1, then some initiators will be unused, and the ports that are used will each have paths_per_initiator number of ports assigned.

If the number of initiators is greater than max_paths, max_path number of ports will be assigned to initiators and the remaining initiators will be unassigned. The ports will be balanced across networks if possible.

If in a VPLEX environment, expand
High Availability and select:.

VPLEX local to only use VPLEX local volumes in the virtual pool.

VPLEX distributed to only use VPLEX distributed volumes in the virtual pool.

None to use both VPLEX local and VPLEX distributed volumes, which match the other virtual pool settings, in the virtual pool.

Expand Protection to define the following data protection criteria:

Option

Description

Maximum Snapshots

Maximum number of local snapshots allowed for resources from this virtual pool. To use the ViPR Create Snapshot services, a value of at least 1 must be specified.

Maximum Continuous Copies

Maximum number of native continuous copies allowed for resources from this virtual pool. To use the ViPR Create Continuous Copy services a value of at least 1 must be specified.

Continuous Copies Virtual Pool

Enables a different virtual pool to be specified which will be used for native continuous copies.

Native continuous copies are not supported for virtual pools with the expandable attribute enabled.

Protection System

Enables volumes created in the virtual pool to be protected by a supported protection system. The possible values are:

None

EMC Recoverpoint

Recoverpoint protection requires a virtual array to act as the RecoverPoint target and optionally an existing target virtual pool.

Set the source journal size as needed. The RecoverPoint default is 2.5 times protected storage, or select one of the following:

A fixed value (in MB, GB or TB).

A multiplier of the protected storage.

Minimum allowable by RecoverPoint (10 GB).

Select
Add Copy to add one or two RecoverPoint copies, specifying the destination
Virtual Array, and optionally,

A
Virtual Pool
to specify the characteristics of the RecoverPoint target and journal volume.

The Recoverpoint target
Journal Size. The RecoverPoint default is 2.5 times protected storage

VMAX SRDF

VMAX SRDF protection requires a virtual array to act as the SRDF target, and optionally an existing target virtual pool.

Select the ViPR virtual array that will provide the destination for the distributed volume.

Select the ViPR virtual pool that will be used when creating the distributed volume .

Expand
Access Control to restrict access in a multiple tenant environment.

Enable
Restrict Tenant Access.

Select the
Tenants that will have access to this virtual pool.

Expand
Storage Pools to view the discovered storage pools, and to choose how the
Pool Assignment will be performed:

Automatic — the storage pools that make up the virtual pool will be updated as pools that meet the criteria are added or removed from the virtual array. This can occur when new pools that meet the criteria are added or removed from the system, or their registration or discovery status changes.

Manual — provides a checkbox against each pool to enable it to be selected. Only the selected storage pools will be included in the virtual pool.

The pool matching algorithm runs shortly after a criteria has been selected and the matching pools will be from all systems that can provide pools that support the selected protocol.